after two weeks of rain we finally had some time during the last days to arrange our frontgarden in kamata. Now it looks nice again … but actually there are too many cats wandering in our garden recently . well we can also look at it from a positive side :too many cats means no mice.
last week it seems that all of a sudden rain season has returned. complaints about the heat and humidity have changed 180 degrees into complaints about the rainfall. For a hostel rain means that people tend to spend more time inside than usual … Even in tokyo, the pace of life seems to slow down when it continues to rain for days in a row. If rain can slow the shedules of the trains down , it automatically slows the schedules of people down as well. And in that sense, it actually brings people closer. everyone has more time to talk with other people in the building “because it rains”. The common room is so popular on rainy days in the weekend that there is almost no chance to clean it…. except very early in the morning !
We put an extra computer for the guests in Nippori.
last week a group of dutch people arrived in nippori. With a group of about 10 people the guesthouse in nippori suddenly turned into a dutch house. It is nice to hear something that almost sounds like my mothertongue after more than 3 years from home ! In the past I studied for 4 years in the Netherlands, so in a sense I was their “guest”. Although being a guest in japan must be quite a different and far more adventurous experience, I hope they enjoy being guests here as much as I did in their country.
with only 1 room empty for the weekend, tsukaki gardens has never been more crowded than now. While the tourists at Nippori are going to see the sumida fireworks, the guests in kamata enjoy the local matsuri in kamata tonight ! The whole week we could observe preparations for drums, dance and mikoshi (portable shrines). The matsuri itself is a parade in which people are dancing, jumping, screaming, playing instruments and especially sweating Probably that s why all this has traditionally to be followed by …… a lot of drinking. Well if that s the way to celebrate the gods, why not ?
officially we changed on our website that we do not take reservations if it is for less than a week. Because there are only a couple of rooms available we cannot book for just 1 or 2 nights in august. Perhaps tsubaki gardens is getting too popular (joke ; )
In nippori mainly long-term-summer-holiday-travellers this month and next month. In Kamata mainly long term people . therefore the atmosphere in both guesthouses is very different. I am going back and forward all the time , and when I am in the one guesthouse I actually miss the other ; )
summer is around the corner and we have a whole lot of tourists booked in our nippori guesthouse. Since Nippori opened less than a month ago, everything has to go fast. Still now everyday we are changing small things to make our guests stay nicer and more comfortable.
more guests stayed at our nippori gardens last week. maiko came over to tokyo because of her interest in yoga and when I returned yesterday evening there was a yoga class going on in our living room: maiko was instructing the other guests. I enjoyed the view while eating my lunchbox. Since more reservations came in we will be busy coming week preparing the two last floors of the building .
Yesterday we put new flooring in the living room / common room of our Nippori guesthouse . Now it has a warmer and cozy feeling. Of course soon pics will be available to show you guys the work we did. The first guests are enjoying the silence of a nearly empty building. you think it is sad or scary ? well…we asked them and they said the opposite ! anyway it will change soon as reservations are coming in every day. Tsubaki gardens in Kamata is already half full two months after the opening, and seems to be popular among people who wanna stay a bit longer than the regular tourist. so the atmosphere became a bit dormitory-like, thus we have some long term people living here now who always welcome the backpackers.
It took a bit longer than planned for preparing and organizing but …finally from today the first guests will stay at our Nippori guesthouse ! !